The Zoo of
Extinct Animals
A Reading A–Z Level Z Leveled Book
Word Count: 2,336
Connections
LEVELED BOOK • Z
The Zoo of
Extinct Animals
Writing
If you were Hazel, what decision would you
make and why? Write a friendly letter to
Malcolm explaining the decision you made.
Science
Research one of the extinct animals from
the book. Create an informational brochure
for your classmates about that animal,
including information about where and
when it lived.
Z
•
Z
Z
1•
Written by Katherine Follett and Rus Buyok
Illustrated by Jeremy Norton
Visit www.readinga-z.com
for thousands of books and materials.
www.readinga-z.com
2
Words to Know
The Zoo of
Extinct
Animals
captive breeding
compound
conservation
extinct
high ground
humane
internship
media
monitor
specimens
transport
violating
Written by Katherine Follett and Rus Buyok
Illustrated by Jeremy Norton
www.readinga-z.com
Focus Question
How does Hazel’s summer-internship
experience change her?
The Zoo of Extinct Animals
Level Z Leveled Book
© Learning A–Z
Written by Katherine Follett and Rus Buyok
Illustrated by Jeremy Norton
All rights reserved.
www.readinga-z.com
Correlation
LEVEL Z
Fountas & Pinnell
Reading Recovery
DRA
U–V
N/A
50
Hazel’s summer internship began with her
signing a ridiculous stack of papers. Out the office
window, she could see gates leading into the vast
Wyoming compound. A man in a suit sat across
from her, explaining the legal ramifications of
working at Buckland Rare Animal Research Center.
“Don’t worry,” said Jim, the head animal
keeper and Hazel’s new boss. “Eve is just curious.”
“Eve,” Hazel whispered to herself, just to be
sure she wasn’t dreaming.
“Buckland has to protect its property,” the man
explained. “We reserve the right to monitor all
communications in and out of the compound, and
the agreement you’re signing now extends beyond
the grounds of Buckland. The consequences for
violating said agreement are . . . severe.”
“I guess I’d better learn to keep a secret,” Hazel
said. In reply, the man forced a smile.
The website had made the place look like a
fairly normal research zoo. True, it had the world’s
largest collection of endangered species, and it did
say they were doing cutting-edge genetic research.
Still, what secrets could they really have?
Two hours later, Hazel thought she understood.
She was standing in front of a real woolly
mammoth. Its tusks sliced through the air, and
its trunk snaked toward Hazel’s face. She yelped
and stumbled back.
The Zoo of Extinct Animals • Level Z
3
4
Jim reached through the bars and scratched the
huge creature on the cheek. It rumbled like a giant
cat. Eve’s fur was longer and thicker than Hazel
would ever have thought, forming a fluttering
skirt below the mammoth’s belly. It smelled healthy
and good, like a dog that’s been jumping in leaves.
“How did you. . .?” Hazel began. “Where did
she . . .?”
“Siberia, I think,” Jim said. “Her genes came
from there, at least. It took many years and more
money than you or I could ever dream of, but our
scientists finally found a way to bring the species
back—at least a couple specimens. The male is
out having a checkup. I’m sure you can guess
his name.”
“She’s beautiful,” Hazel whispered as Eve’s
trunk brushed over her sneakers.
Jim smiled. “She’s just the first stop.”
Hazel spent the rest of the day in a state of
wonder as Jim took her throughout the complex
to each of the extinct animals’ enclosures. The
Megatheriums had their own stand of trees to rest in,
beside a pond. Jim explained how the Thylacinus
habitat tried to mimic a particular area in Tasmania.
The Zoo of Extinct Animals • Level Z
5
At the moa habitat, the other intern joined
them. Malcolm kept his hands in his pockets
and jumped up and down with excitement as
he squeaked over and over, trying to make the
twelve-foot birds’ calls. He was weird. Hazel liked
him already.
That night, Malcolm joined her in the common
area of the staff dormitory.
“So what’s your theory?” Malcolm casually
folded his arms on the table and knocked a stack
of papers to the floor.
6
Hazel tried not to laugh. “On what?”
The next few weeks were hard work. As the
interns, Hazel and Malcolm were given every
job anyone else didn’t want to do. They shoveled
poop and cleaned enclosures. They fetched
equipment for different people. Some of the
staff even started referring to them as “gophers”
because they were always being asked to “go for”
one thing or another.
“They’re reviving extinct animals,” he said.
“We’re talking Nobel Prizes, faces on magazine
covers—the works. Why is Buckland keeping it
so secret?”
The question had crossed Hazel’s mind, too.
“Someone must know,” she said, “because
someone’s paying for this place. It must cost
a fortune to run.”
Malcolm pointed a finger at Hazel. “You’ve hit
the nail on the board, or the head of the nail, or
something. I guess I messed up that metaphor,
but it doesn’t matter—something fishy is going
on here,” he said.
Hazel laughed. Malcolm seemed like a guy
with a busy brain.
He shrugged. “Whatever it is, a lifetime of
keeping my mouth shut seems worth it. Certainly
easier to handle than the student loans I’d have to
take out if I want to get a doctorate—and I do. You
know what I’m saying?”
Hazel thought she did know. Like Malcolm,
she was counting on this internship to help fund
her future education.
The Zoo of Extinct Animals • Level Z
7
Still, Hazel was thrilled. She loved working
around these amazing animals and seeing how
they behaved. She especially loved visiting Eve,
who would reach out her trunk and inspect
Hazel’s pockets for treats, rumbling gently.
Hazel sometimes discovered an animal missing
from an enclosure during her rounds. When she
pointed it out to Jim, he checked a small tablet and
explained that the animal had been moved to one
of the other compounds for observation, or that it
was being treated for some illness. Sometimes the
animal came back, but sometimes it didn’t.
One day, while Hazel and Malcolm ate their
cafeteria lunch in a grassy area beside one of the
warehouses, they saw Jim and another keeper
loading an Entelodont into a transport. The
creature was the size of a buffalo.
8
“Doesn’t look too happy,” Malcolm remarked
as the beast bellowed and crashed into the side of
the cage. “People call them ‘terror pigs,’ but they’re
really more like hippos.”
“Wonder where they’re taking it,” Hazel said.
“Seems pretty healthy to me.”
As they watched, the man walked around the
transport, examining the Entelodont with great
interest. His broad smile showed strangely white
teeth. He said something that they couldn’t hear,
and Jim forced a smile in return.
After a few minutes, the two of them climbed
into the vehicle and drove off.
Just then, a large white SUV with dark
windows pulled up. Out popped a small man
with white hair and dark sunglasses. He was
dressed as if he were going on a safari—not
looking at research animals in Wyoming.
“That was odd,” Malcolm said. “Who was
that guy?”
Hazel shook her head.
That evening, Hazel watched a movie on her
computer for a while, but the smiling man’s face
kept forcing its way into her mind. His smile, with
its too-white teeth, had a quality that made her
uneasy. She had seen the same look on some of
the predators at feeding time. She decided to take
a walk and let the cool night air clear her head.
She stuck her hands in her pockets and set off
in no particular direction. The dark night sky let
her see the stars that filled it—more stars than
she’d ever seen before. Before she knew it, Hazel
had walked to Eve’s enclosure. The keepers had
returned Adam not long after Hazel arrived, and
she could hear the pair snoring behind the locked
door. She smiled at the sound.
The Zoo of Extinct Animals • Level Z
9
10
In the distance, she saw a pair of lights
bouncing down the dirt road that led between the
compounds. As the lights drew closer, she could
tell it wasn’t one of the jeeps people usually took.
This one sounded more like a transport vehicle,
maybe bringing a new species, or a baby. She
decided to wait around.
Then they dropped the third tarp, and she
saw the head of the Entelodont, its huge tongue
hanging sickly out the side of its open mouth.
The transport came through the gates and
pulled up to what the staff called the “feeding
station,” one of the small buildings where the
animals’ food was prepared.
Jim hopped out with two other keepers and
pulled the back doors open, but it was difficult to
see with so little light. She heard the keepers reach
into the transport and pull out something wrapped
in a large tarp. It made a dull thump as it hit the
ground. They reached in and pulled out three
more tarps. Thump. Thump. Thump.
Hazel wanted to turn away, but she couldn’t.
One by one, the keepers lifted the tarps and pulled
them toward the large door, into the light. They
dropped the first one, and Hazel could make out
what looked like part of an animal. The second one
was larger, and when they set it down, she could
just make out the shoulder of the same kind of
animal. It had a few small holes in it, almost like
bullet holes.
The Zoo of Extinct Animals • Level Z
11
12
Hazel covered her gasp with her hand and slid
back into the shadows, not sure what to do. Maybe
it wasn’t what it looked like. Maybe the animal
had tried to attack someone. Maybe it was too sick
and they had to put it down, though she couldn’t
imagine why the keepers would shoot it rather
than do something more humane.
She made her way back to the dormitory,
questions tumbling through her brain. Had the
man with the white teeth hunted the creature?
Did the researchers know about it? And of all the
buildings to drag a dead animal to . . . why the
feeding station?
Hazel climbed the stairs to her room and
locked the door behind her.
He opened the doors to his jeep, and they both
climbed in. When the doors were closed, Hazel
described what she’d seen the previous night. Jim
looked out at the complex and nodded.
“When they first offered me this position, I
found the idea of letting billionaires hunt extinct
animals for sport disgusting. I had cared for
animals in zoos since I was your age,” he said.
“I couldn’t bring myself to do it—so I refused.”
Jim turned to look at Hazel. “Then they
explained the good we could do. These people
pay huge amounts of money for us to raise these
animals so they can hunt and, in some cases, eat
them.” Jim sighed, and went on. “While we raise
these creatures, we learn about them—how they
behave, raise young, survive.
“The money has also allowed us to bring back
recently extinct animals. The golden toad and the
Zanzibar leopard, for example, were both killed
off because of humans. Now we’re working
toward releasing these creatures back into the
wild. They have a chance of surviving because the
money has allowed us to ramp up conservation
efforts around the globe.
The next morning, Hazel was still in shock.
She had barely slept, and the image of the dead
Entelodont kept repeating whenever she closed
her eyes. She didn’t know the whole story yet,
though. She needed to talk to Jim.
After the morning meeting, Hazel asked Jim
if she could talk to him in private.
“Sure,” he said, smiling. “Please, step into
my office.”
The Zoo of Extinct Animals • Level Z
13
14
Jim’s arguments made sense, but what about
Eve? Hazel couldn’t accept the thought of her
running from some rich guy with a big gun
while he hunted her for the most expensive
dinner of his life.
“Look,” Jim said, placing his hand on her
shoulder. “We’re doing good work here—
important work—and sometimes that means
making difficult choices. You have to do what’s
right for you, and I can’t tell you what that is.
You’re a great worker, and I’d be happy to keep
you on. You can also make the choice to end your
internship. It’s completely up to you.”
“Last year alone, the organization bought and
saved miles of rainforest and wetlands in Florida,
India, and South America. It funded captivebreeding programs for endangered animals in
zoos throughout the United States and Europe.
We funded research trips into the most remote
regions on Earth to discover new species.
“Most of that could never have been done if it
weren’t for the money raised here from the legal
hunting of twenty-seven animals. And keep in
mind,” Jim added, “most of the animals here have
been extinct so long, their natural habitats no
longer exist.”
The Zoo of Extinct Animals • Level Z
15
Hazel took a deep breath. “Thanks for the talk,
Jim. I have some things to think about,” she said.
“Sounds like it,” he said. “Could you think
about it while you clean up the mammoth
enclosure?”
Hazel nodded and climbed out of the truck.
Hazel spent more time than usual cleaning Eve
and Adam’s enclosure. In her eyes, the mammoths
were wild animals with as much right to live as
any other. In the eyes of the organization, they
were property, like cattle or pigs, except these two
animals could save thousands.
16
She stopped at the Zanzibar leopards’ area to
watch a young cat batting around a coconut. The
coat that had caused humans to hunt them to
extinction was just starting to come in. Someday,
could this one be released back into the wild?
That night at dinner, Malcolm said, “Okay,
enough already. You’ve been bummed out all day.
Don’t leave me in the dark.”
Hazel sighed and explained everything.
“Wow,” he said when she finished. “This might
be the first of my theories that’s proven true. My
mind is blown.”
“That’s it?” Hazel snapped. “That’s all you can
say about this?”
Malcolm shrugged. “What can we do about it?
We leave here in some sort of quiet protest, and
we lose our college funding, but we get to keep
the moral high ground.”
Hazel looked at her feet—like Malcolm, she
really needed the funding to afford school.
“I guess you could leave and tell the press,”
he continued. “The program would likely be shut
down, and Buckland Wildlife would be killed in
the media. Buckland would likely come after you
and your family with the ‘severe’ consequences
that lawyer guy talked about.”
Hazel’s eyes burned as tears rolled down
her cheeks. After a while, people started leaving
the cafeteria and heading back to work. Malcolm
finished his sandwich before he spoke again.
The Zoo of Extinct Animals • Level Z
17
18
Glossary
captive
breeding (n.)
the breeding of animals in captivity
for release into the wild (p. 15)
compound (n.)
a walled-off area containing a group
of buildings (p. 3)
conservation (n.) the protection of wild lands and the
living things found there (p. 14)
extinct (adj.)
no longer in existence (p. 5)
high ground (n.) a morally superior position (p. 18)
humane (adj.)
causing as little pain as possible
(p. 13)
internship (n.)
a temporary job where a student
or trainee works to gain experience
in a particular profession (p. 3)
media (n.)
mass communication, such as
newspapers, television, or the
Internet, through which information
is given to the public (p. 18)
monitor (v.)
to observe the progress of
something (p. 3)
“Not all,” Malcolm agreed, “but when has
anything ever been for the good of all?”
specimens (n.)
examples of something used for
comparison, study, or display (p. 5)
Hazel didn’t know. She only knew that she
faced a choice, and no matter what she chose,
someone—man, beast, or both—was going to
get hurt.
transport (n.)
a vehicle that carries animals or
things from one place to another
(p. 8)
violating (v.)
breaking a law or rule (p. 3)
“Or you could do what I’m going to do,” he
said quietly. “Accept a less than perfect situation
for the greater good of all.”
“Not all,” Hazel said.
The Zoo of Extinct Animals • Level Z
19
20